Joe Weather Blog: More Arctic Shots To Come (THU-1/8)

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Joe Weather Blog: More Arctic Shots To Come (THU-1/8)

Well if nothing else we were awfully cold yesterday and this morning…our low temperature yesterday ended up at -3° at around 10:15 or so in the evening…then we hit -3° again at around 12:30 this morning…so we’ve had back to back sub-zero lows in KC. Just one of the ways things worked out that they happened within 3 hours of each other. Temperatures were actually on the increase overnight thanks to return flow and some cloud cover.

Forecast:

Rest of today: Mainly cloudy. Windy and “milder” with highs near 25°. Wind chills however will make things feel a lot chillier especially in the AM hours. As I type this wind chills are 5-15° below 0°.

Tonight: Another shot of arctic air comes southwards and temperatures again tank in the morning. Down to 0-+5°

Tomorrow: Bitterly cold day again with highs around 15°

Discussion:

Well we’ve set a pressure record at KCI of 1052.2 mbs or about 31.02″. The record for KCI wasn’t as hard to break because again the records go back to the early 70s. The overall record of 31.11″ goes back to 1924 and that will stand for the foreseeable future.

It’s funny how weather works…given a bunch of snowcover and last night’s regime…we would’ve been 10-15° below 0 (assuming the return flow held off for a few more hours) but in the world of weather things work out and they don’t. That’s probably one of those things that many folks are glad didn’t work out.

Today we’ll be in return flow as the massive high is weakening and moving off towards the east of KC. South winds on the backside of the high moved in overnight and temperatures started to recover somewhat. We should pop into the mid 20s today but again the winds will make things feel a lot colder.

Here is a temperature chart showing the progress of the cold and the rebound at KCI (via IA State). Might take a minute to load…since it regenerates every time you read the blog with the latest information

As far as the airmasses that will be affecting our weather…I thought I’d show you another meteogram…notice the wind barbs about 2/3rds of the way down. Every time those bards switch towards the NW and blow SE that is the colder air moving back in…the opposite holds true as well…S>N wind barbs indicate return flow. Again this data will update every 12 hours as the NAM model is updated. (via Earl Barker). For timing purposes…12Z is 6AM…18Z is Noon…00Z is 6PM…and 06Z is 12AM. The dividers between those main times show every 3 hours.

So today through this evening the wind barbs show south>west flow bring in “milder” air…then tomorrow NW winds bring in the cold air…then tomorrow night we’re back in return flow into Saturday which means another moderation. The green blobs represent moisture through the atmosphere.

Despite all this though…still no meaningful snow. Here is the latest snow totals for the season as of this morning via IA State.

Nice totals across N MI with over 90″ in Marquette which is about 10″ above average. Minneapolis has had 15.6″ which is about 9″ below average though. International Falls is close to average with around 33″.

Nobody seems “overly” snowy though and the trend is definitely lower than average for many cities in the country this winter so far.

The good news (bad for snow lovers) is that our usual January thaw is going to start happening in about a week or so. So we have that to look forward too. There is a weak system passing to the south of the region later in the weekend…something to watch just in case. Then we’ll start out next week chilly and gradually recover towards the end of the week.